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January 5, 2014

I started writing something yesterday that sort of stuck with me as a good beginning for an apocalyptic tale. Yesterday's prompt is first, followed by today's.

They drove slowly along the dark, deserted road in the Humvee. The narrow, rutted, poor excuse for a road made the trek take twice as long as it would have under normal circumstances. These were not normal circumstances and Samantha Downey didn't think she'd ever get used to the eerie silence. The complete absence of sound, not even bugs or a breeze. Just the low rumble of the vehicle as they made their way. It was the kind of quiet that magnified the sound of her beating heart twenty-fold.It was also a special kind of hot out there there in the desert. Sammy tugged at the collar of her uniform, trying to catch a clean breath. One that didn't smell of camel's ass and gun powder. The moon was full, helping to illuminate a little wider patch of ground than usual. Off in the distance, Sammy stared as the orange flickers from the burning village lit up the sky, and had she not known that dawn was still several hours away, it might have made her recall the hundreds of beautiful California sunrises she'd witnessed as a younger woman. Instead, the glow caused her to shudder.

"The stars are dancing in hell tonight," she whispered as she gazed up into the night sky.January 5, 2014 prompt: January 5th, 2014 StoryStarter prompt: With honor comes a duty to be more than you are for the greater good of everyone except you.With honor comes a duty to be more than you are for the greater good of everyone except yourself. Sammy was sick and tired of putting everyone else ahead of herself. She was angry for having to do the honorable thing. Normally, she was a selfless person, but she was worn out and jaded from experiencing things that up until a few weeks ago, she'd only seen in the movies or read about in books. She was hot, tired, hungry and her skin felt like leather. Not to mention she hadn't had a bath since she couldn't remember when.What she wouldn't give for a hot shower and a mani-pedi."Whatcha thinkin' about there Princess?" Porter asked. Sammy glared at the boy in the front seat. "Porter? If you call me Princess one more time, I'm going to slit your sack while you're sleeping and stick your leg through it," she told him cheerfully. She turned away from him and stared out the window. "Nice talk," he grinned, seemingly unaffected by her comment. He couldn't believe his luck. Him, the high school nerd, driving a Humvee with the lead cheerleader, Samantha Downey in the backseat. Admittedly, she'd seen better days. They both had. "Shut up. Don't look at me. Don't talk to me. Don't even acknowledge my existence, deal?" Sammy barked.

Lori L. Clark

Lori L. Clark currently resides in Hazelwood, MO with three rescue dogs. When Lori isn't listening to the voices in her head, waiting for the next creative inspiration to strike, she also loves to read, run, paint pet portraits and save dogs. Email Lori at LLClark.author@gmail.com

2 comments:

I love these too pieces together. They work really well. I found today's prompt quite hard. Really out of my comfort zone you could say. But i got it eventually. You can find it here: http://angel-leigh.com/lets-write-2014-day-5/